Tummala’s intervention leads to cotton procurement resumption from Wednesday

Hyderabad: Cotton procurement in Telangana will resume from Wednesday following Agriculture Minister Tummala Nageswara Rao’s meeting with Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) CMD Lalit Kumar Gupta and the Ginning Millers Association on Tuesday.

The meeting, held at the state Secretariat, helped resolve the deadlock over procurement. Ginning millers raised operational concerns, prompting the minister to direct Agriculture Secretary Surendra Mohan to prepare a detailed report and submit it to the Union Ministry of Textiles.

State assures support, asks mills to reopen

Tummala urged millers not to proceed with their proposed strike, warning it would hurt farmers directly. He assured them of full state support and instructed the immediate reopening of all notified ginning mills across districts.

The minister also noted that the state had already taken steps to ease procurement for farmers. He cited the recent increase in maize procurement limits from 18 to 25 quintals and a directive to Markfed to raise soybean procurement under NAFED from 6.72 to 10 quintals per acre.

Tummala slams Cotton Kisan App, defends state’s role

Tummala criticised the Centre’s Cotton Kisan App, citing farmer complaints over OTP issues, strict moisture conditions, and reduced procurement limits. He blamed the Centre’s L1–L12 mill classification system for sparking the strike.

He appealed to millers to escalate grievances to the Centre rather than halting operations and placing additional burdens on farmers.

Responding to BRS criticism, Tummala maintained that the state government was actively coordinating with Union ministers, including G. Kishan Reddy, to resolve procurement challenges.